Part One: The Black Cloud

Dr. Feinauer was my pediatrician when I was a little girl. I remember visiting the Salt Lake Clinic with my mother and pressing my nose against the aquarium in his waiting room, hoping to catch a glimpse of the black spotted pleco that liked to suck up rocks on the bottom and spit them back out.

This Norman Rockwell print hung in the exam room and I worried a lot about whether the doctor in the picture was going to warn the boy before sticking him. Dr. Feinauer always warned me and I thought that was only fair.

I don't remember if I cried getting shots or if I was indeed "very brave" like the doctor always said; either way I got a lollipop at the end and some kind of sticker, but the best part was the colorful bandaid. After receiving my Kindergarten shots, I ran to my friend Jill's house (just across the cul-de-sac) and promptly dropped my Holly Hobbie drawers to show her the Snoopy bandaid on my butt. She had one too; I think it was Woodstock.